Disclaimer - YADA, YADA,YADA. Read chapters 1-5, I hate repeating myself.

OK, got this up as quick as I could, now somebody tell Shadowwolf919 not to hurt me, OK? Just kidding. I love the faithful reviewers, but would love to hear from anyone! And on with the show!!!!

Chapter Six – Out of the woods

Jeff dialed Brains' cell phone number with trepidation. He wanted – no needed to know if it was Alan's track team that was trapped by the fire. But at the same time, the billionaire wanted nothing more than to be doing anything else in the world. Behind him, he could hear John shakily tell Scott what was being reported on the news. Gordon, Kate and Virgil remained still on the couch, frozen in horror. Kate summed it up perfectly when she whispered, "Please, God, let Alan be OK."

In Massachusetts, Brains locked eyes with his son; they both recognized the distinctive ring as belonging to Jefferson Tracy. As both Hackenbackers looked over to where the media was gathered, they recalled Thunderbird Five. John may have been monitoring the team's progress but would have kept an eye out for other disasters. While the fire had progressed – and now been brought under control – too quickly for the Thunderbirds to help, if John had caught any of the news update, he surely would have told Jeff at Command and Control. Jeff would have first called Alan, but Brains had already discovered that Alan had left his cell phone in the suitcase the Hackenbackers had put in the rental car. With a heavy heart, Brains answered his phone "H-hello?"

"Brains, where are you?" Jeff's anxious voice came through clearly.

"M-Mr. Tracy…Jeff, I, I d-don't know if you've h-heard, b-b-but…"

"Brains, was that Alan's team that was trapped in the fire in the Berkshires?" Brains was shocked by the tremor that ran through the deep timber of Jefferson Tracy's voice. Having known the founder of International Rescue for a decade, Brains' shouldn't have been surprised. Jeff Tracy loved his sons desperately and his greatest fear was to lose one of them. Brains took a deep breath to compose himself before delivering the news that was sure to devastate the entire Tracy family.

Jeff Tracy sat back in his chair, too shocked and horrified to speak. Brains had just relayed Jeff's worst nightmare. Alan was gone. No chance, no reason. Just gone.

Scott looked at his father, devastated beyond belief. He didn't want to know, but he had to. Taking the phone from his father's limp hand, Scott put the call on speaker. "Brains, what have you found out?"

"Sc-Scott, the f-f-fire chief j-j-just con-confirmed that it was A-A-Alan's team th-that was t-t-trapped in the fire. Sp-sp-spotter p-p-p- aircrafts have b-b-been unable to sp-sp-sp locate the boys." Scott began to speak, hopeful.

But Fermat shot down the spark of hope. "Th-they are getting s-s-search dogs to l-look f-f-f-for b-b-bodies." The Tracys heard the tears in the boy's voice.

Back on Tracy Island, Kate's brown eyes filled with tears. "No, please, no." After the failure to save one of the villagers on the rescue, the loss of her youngest brother-in-law was tearing the young woman apart. Scott switched places with Virgil. The middle Tracy son placed a comforting hand on his father's shoulder. Scott pulled his wife into his arms as she began to break down. Brushing down her black wavy hair, Scott rocked Kate, trying to console her and keep his own pain in check.

"John, is the story being carried now?" Gordon broke the silence.

"Ummm, yes. It's on Global News Network."

Gordon put the vid on. He needed to see this. Soon a reporter's voice filled the room. "This is Ana Nevada, in the Berkshire National Forest in Massachusetts. Today, what was supposed to be a celebratory outing for a local high school track team has turned into a tragedy. Fifteen boys and their coach were hiking to Cascade Falls, about four miles from this spot, when lightning strikes sparked a forest fire which decimated an area approximately two miles in diameter. It has been determined that the team would have been in the center of the devastated area when the fire began. Hope has been extinguished with the flames as spotters were unable to see any sign of the team. Now the search will be for bodies."

The anchor, too eagerly for the Tracys liking, asked the reporter, "Ana, have authorities confirmed what school the boys were from?"

The reporter was assuming a serious manner belied by her voice filled with gleeful anticipation. Kate turned her tear-streaked face to the vid at the woman's voice. Vultures, she thought as the reporter continued. "Not yet Tom, but rumor has it this may be the championship track and field team from Wharton Academy, an exclusive all-boys school nearby that is the academic year home to some of the sons of the wealthiest families in the country."

In the background, the Tracys could see an angry Fermat glaring at the reporter. They knew what the boy was thinking, what they were thinking. How dare this woman make sport of such a tragedy? What if it hadn't been that school? Did she know or care that her reckless reporting style could be the way some parents discovered the tragedy? Kate was about to yell at the vid – an unreasonable but understandable reaction – when Jeff raised his head sharply.

"Dad?" Virgil looked at their father with concern. Scott, Virgil, Gordon and even John on Thunderbird Five looked at Jeff, worried about what the loss of their baby brother would do to their father. But Kate pulled out of her husband's arms to stand closer to the vid. She could have sworn she heard….

Back in the Berkshires, everyone in the rescue zone had frozen. They thought they had heard…

"Hey, is anyone there? Can someone hear us? We need some help!" As he yelled out that last sentence, Alan Tracy broke free from the leafy coverage and into the clearing. Behind the blond teenager, fourteen other boys, six of them carrying a man on a homemade stretcher, began to stumble out of the woods. Dirty, exhausted, with sooty tracings over their skin and clothes, but ALIVE!

"Tom!" squealed the obviously easily excitable Ana Nevada. "The boys are alive! We are witnessing a Miracle in the woods of Massachusetts! How exciting!"

Reporters began to surround the boys, but Alan was busy talking to the fire chief, and ignored the media. With the way they had harassed his family for years, Alan held most reporters in rather low esteem. After his abduction six months ago, the press had tried to get "exclusive" interviews with anyone they could. Even attempts by a Tracy Enterprises spokesperson to explain that the family had been told that talking about the case could jeopardize the prosecution of the kidnapper, hadn't stopped some of them. And when he thought of the ones who had tried to crash Scott and Kate's wedding...

When most of the boys relayed to the press how it was Alan who had saved the day, leading them down into an abandoned mine for shelter, several of the reporters tried to get the teen's attention. But it was Ana, who, talking to Kyle Wescott who had discovered just who Alan was…

Addressing her anchor at once she relayed, "And the hero of the hour is the youngest son of reclusive billionaire Jeff Tracy himself. Alan, do you have anything to say to the world?"

Alan glared at the young woman, glanced at his team and couch to make sure rescue personnel had them in hand, then gave the reporter his answer.

"No."

The reporters stared in shock as with his one word statement, Alan turned away. Having spotted the Hackenbackers, he jogged over to the duo. After briefly exchanging quick hugs and a few quick words, he asked for and received Brains cell. Before he could call home, it rang. Alan smiled as The James Bond Theme rang out. "Hiya Kate! Miss me?"

A/N - You know I could never kill my favorite Tracy. Kidnap, torture, mentally abuse, sure. But at the end of the day, he gets to live, right? Oh, and a cyber cookie to the first reviewer who guesses how I came up with the reporter's name.